Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

TURKISH SPOKESMAN: EP REPORT "FAR FROM COMMON SENSE AND OBJECTIVITY"

Anatolia news agency
5 Sep 06

Ankara, 5 September: "It is obvious that the [EP – European Parliament]
report (on Turkey) focused on issues which has nothing to do with
common sense and objectivity. We hope that those points will be
addressed before the vote in the General Assembly at the end of this
month," Turkish MFA spokesman Namik Tan said regarding the Turkey
report which was adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
European Parliament, yesterday.

Upon a question, Tan said that the report, which was prepared by
Christian Democrat MEP Camiel Eurlings, would be voted at the General
Assembly on 28 September 2006.

Tan noted: "Several matters in the report which are far from being
real and written with political impulses do not reflect EP’s esteem
and seriousness."

He mentioned as example issues like the so-called Armenian genocide.

Tan said: "We expect the EP would encourage Turkey-EU relations. We
hope MEPs will demonstrate common sense to fix this situation during
general assembly meeting."

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA APPRECIATES PROCESS OF REFORMS BEING IMPLEMENTED IN ARAGATSOTN MARZ

Noyan Tapan
Sept 06 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Robert Kocharian
attaches serious importance to development of reprocessing production
in the marz of Aragatsotn, in encouraging of which, in his words,
the local authorities have much to do. The country head stated about
it at the meeting with journalists after the working visit paid
to the marz of Aragatsotn on September 5. As a succeeded example,
the President mentioned one of the "Tamara-Fruit" factory, which,
according to his estimation, has great perspectives. The factory makes
an attempt to occupy a place in the European market, by cooperating
with the European Bank. The President expressed satisfaction with
the high speeds of school construction in the marz: "Other 2-3 years,
and the promise that there will be no unrestored school in Armenia,
will become a reality," the President mentioned. In his words, a
great volume of gasification works is also done in the marz. The
President emphasized that only some villages had gasification
in the territory of the marz during the Soviet period, when 29
rural communities have gasification at present, and it’s envisaged
that other 15-20 communities will have gasification till late this
year. According to the President’s estimation, the state of highways
is not bad in the marz, and as for improvement of the irrigation
system, it’s envisaged to improve the irrigation system particularly
by the program of reconstruction of reservoirs and construction of
water-pipes. The IPAC and World Bank allocated capital investment of
4.5 bln drams for this purpose. During the visit paid to Aragatsotn,
the RA President visited the newly restored school of the village of
Aragats, Saghmosavank and "Tamara-Fruit" factory. The President held
a consultation at the Regional Governor’s Office on the same day.

US GOVERNMENT COMPLETES $30,000 OF RENOVATIONS TO THE ARMENIAN NATIONAL CINEMATHEQUE

ArmRadio.am
05.09.2006 15:42

The US Embassy announces the completion of $30,000 worth of renovations
to the National Cinematheque of Armenia. This project has allowed
the Cinematheque to create a climate-controlled space to preserve
its collection of over 270,000 Armenian films, audio recordings,
and photos. The Cinematheque is the only existing collection of
Armenia’s film heritage, and houses the first Armenian silent film,
rare musical recordings, and historically significant Armenian photos.

The US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, through which
the US Government provided the funding, works worldwide to assist
countries in preserving museum collections, ancient and historic
sites and traditional forms of expression. This program strives to
help preserve the cultural heritage of countries throughout the world
by providing small grants to support heritage preservation. Since
its creation in 2001, this program has supported almost 300 projects
worldwide, totaling $6.7 million.

LEVON ANANIAN: DIASPORA IS NOT ONLY MATTER BUT ALSO SPIRIT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 05 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Relations between
Armenia and the Diaspora have always been firm, the Diaspora has
always stood near Armenia and in the recent years, after Armenia’s
independence, these relations got a new quality. Levon Ananian,
Chairman of the Armenian Union of Writers, declared at the September 5
meeting of representatives of creative intelligentsia with RA Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian dedicated to the forthcoming Armenia-Diaspora
forum.

As he estimated, the Diaspora’s support was one-sided formerly, but
now Armenia has reconsidered its policy towards the Diaspora. "As
the Diaspora is not only a matter, but also a spirit," Levon Ananian
declared.

Vartan Oskanian presented the agenda of the Armenia-Diaspora third
forum to the meeting participants. In the minister’s words, the forum
creates a historical possibility for discussing important national
issues among representatives of Armenia and the Diaspora.

The minister drew the attention of those present to the project of
improving the living conditions of 50 Armenian villages and informed
them that 30 Diasporan sponsors have already given consent to finance
the project.

DEFENSE ARMY IS ON OF THE MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS OF NKR

ArmRadio.am
05.09.2006 13:25

"One of the major achievements of NKR is the Defense Army. Created
along with the military actions, in a short period of time the
Karabakh Army developed into a combatant organization equipped
with modern military tools and armaments," NKR Defense Minister,
Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan stated during the festive events
dedicated to the 15th anniversary of declaration of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic. According to NKR Defense Minister, today the
Defense Army is providing for the security of NKR borders without
the intervention of a second force. The Army is ready to show proper
resistance to any infringement of the rival.

GUL HAS POSTPONED HIS VISIT TO ATHENS. HE IS GOING TO WASHINGTON INSTEAD.

Sabah, Turkey
Sept 4 2006

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gul is entering into intensive
diplomacy traffic. On September 13th, Gul will visit France. Gul’s
goal for this trip is to promote relations with France, which has
prepared a draft bill that supports so-called Armenian genocide. On
September 14th, Gul will be on his way to New York to attend the UN
General Assembly. Gul will spend a week in the States then he will
return back to Ankara. In his previous agenda, Gul was planning to
visit Athens on October 2nd. Gul has postponed his trip to Athens and
has decided to go to Washington instead in order to solve the Middle
East and PKK terrorist organization problems.

ASHOT GHULIAN: ALL LEGAL ACTS OF DECLARING NKR WERE FAULTLESS

Yerkir.am
September 01, 2006

"The celebration of the 15th anniversary of the independence prove the
liveliness of our statehood and that the road we chose on September 2,
1991 was right," Ashot Ghulian, the speaker of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic National Assembly, said in a live broadcast of the Karabakh
Public TV, news agency Regnum reported.

Declaring an independent Nagorno Karabakh Republic during the Soviet
rule was a brave move, Ghulian said.

He also said the process of declaring the NKR was faultless in terms
of legitimacy.

"All the steps made and all the legal acts to declare independence
were faultless, and we have never heard any criticism in this regard to
date," Ghulian said. "We did everything in line with the international
law and laws of the Soviet Union."

Speaking of the war and its consequences, Ghulian said that beginning
2000, a serious work has been done to overcome the war consequences
and develop the economy. He also pointed to the role of the army in
ensuring the country’s security.

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Aug 29 2006

Opinions
Do we have to go to Lebanon?

by Nursun Erel

In Turkish there is an expression "to be like a muhtar (district
official)," which is used to describe people who know a lot about
everything and who always get firsthand information. Yesterday I had
to visit our district muhtar for some paperwork, and he knows that I’m
a journalist so the moment I entered his office he started talking:

"Congratulations to Recep Bey (meaning Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan) on his success, as the Cabinet decided to send our troops to
Lebanon. But I have an idea, would you be interested in hearing it?"

I said yes, so he went on:

"Let’s first convince all the Justice and Development (AK) Party
deputies in Parliament and then all the AK Party members in Turkey to
have their sons take part in the peacekeeping force. If they really
think that this would bring some prestige to Turkey’s image, let them
do this first."

He continued in that vein while preparing my papers. Without
commenting on his words, I thanked him and left his office. I took a
taxi afterwards. The driver had just been reading from daily Bugun,
whose headline that day read, "Mehmetcik gidiyor" (Turkish soldiers
are going). As he drove me to the office he said, "Sister, how come
the prime minister dares to do such a thing? If his son was a soldier,
do you think he would send him there?"

Just two of these anecdotes are enough to understand the Turkish
public’s opinion towards the new task to be given soon to Turkish
soldiers. The AK Party heads expect some gains from such an action,
especially from their foreign colleagues, but I’m afraid they will
lose much in the eyes of the people.

Also, I don’t believe that this is going to be easy for the
government; I mean the motion debate is expected to be tough in
Parliament because I keep on hearing negative assessments from many AK
Party deputies. Parliament Foreign Affairs Commission head Mehmet
Dulger’s words (in TNA Monday) were very clear:

"Turkish soldiers may face resistance in Lebanon because we’re Sunni
but the Lebanese are mostly Shiite. Plus there are all kind of
extremist minorities in Lebanon like Armenians and Greek Orthodox
groups. They would never welcome a Turkish presence in Lebanon. This
is a kind of a war that was almost predestined, developed and
strategically designed long ago. The U.S. is one the players, and it’s
clear this is part of their grand plan for the Mideast. More and more
Turkish and American interests in the region are at odds, our policies
and theirs on the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Israeli
aggression, and Iran and Syria aren’t parallel. So once we work with
the U.S., our interests are being harmed. The U.S. could be here for
50 years but our neighbors will always be there."

Trying to asses all these different opinions, I wanted to talk to
military men too so I called up a retired air force general. Once upon
a time he actively served the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), even as a
jet pilot. He was known for his courageous stance, but on the Lebanon
issue his views were surprisingly contrary to the others. This is
what he had to say to me:

"I don’t share the opinions that going to Lebanon would be harmful for
us. On the contrary, I believe that it’s essential for Turkey. Why?
Haven’t we sent our troops to various places in the world before, even
to Afghanistan and Somalia? But Lebanon is closer to us; it’s our
neighbor so it would be a sin to avoid such a historic task.

"What about President Sezer’s words? Well they first surprised me
because I thought maybe such a negative decision was taken on National
Security Council (MGK) grounds. But then I noted that the task given
to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) wasn’t clear
enough at the time, perhaps he thought Turkish troops would
riskclashes in Lebanon. Later it became clearer that the task is only
a peacekeeping responsibility. On the other hand, Lebanese society is
not so dependent on religious or ethnic identities and that is why I
don’t share the fears of some that Turkish soldiers will face
resistance from Shiites.

"Also it is quite obvious that the U.S. is trying to rearrange the
Middle East and they want Turkey to actively take part in such a
project. I firmly believe that Turkey mustn’t be an outsider in the
project. Sooner or later a new Middle East will be created and if we
take part in these efforts now, in the future we will have a say too.

"Lastly, there can’t be any question about the position of the
TSK. They are under the orders of the Turkish government. Once the
task is given they will try to carry it out to the best of their
ability, no matter who commands the Chief of Staff. As far as I can
see, the TSK is ready for such a task."

ANDRANIK MARGARIAN CONGRATULATES ROBERT KOCHARIAN ON OCCASION OF 52TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY

Noyan Tapan
Aug 31 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian congratulated President of the Republic of Armenia
Robert Kocharian on the occasion of the 52th birthday anniversary. As
Noyan Tapan was informed by the Government’s Information and Public
Relations Department, the Prime Minister wished the country head sound
health, sucesses in his high and responsible work and happiness in
his private life.

KOCHARIAN AGAINST DRASTIC CHANGES IN ELECTION CODE

ARMENPRESS
Aug 30 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, ARMENPRESS: Viktor Soghomonian, a spokesman for
Armenian president Robert Kocharian, said today the president was
against a drastic change in the election law that would eliminate
the so-called majoritarian or single-mandate election system.

Soghomonian singled out two major reasons to explain why Kocharian
was against a system when all parliament members are elected under
the so-called proportional system or by party lists.

The first reason is that members of the ruling coalition had agreed
to retain the current system when 41 seats of the 131-member National
Assembly are contested by contenders in single-mandate constituencies
and 90 seats by parties. He said Kocharian is against revision of
this sort of agreements.

Soghomonian said the second reason stemmed from the imperfect political
system of the country. He said Kocharian believes that it would be
wrong to cut electors from the candidates and constituencies.

Soghomonian also downplayed media speculations about tension between
Kocharian and his defense minister Serzh Sarkisian, saying also there
is no tension between the Republican Party of prime minister Margarian
and the Prosperous Armenia, which are seen as the two major rivals
in 2007 parliamentary polls.

Soghomonian said also Kocharian was not mulling joining a political
party. He said neither he nor any other member of Kocharian’s staff
were going to join a party as long as the president remained not
affiliated.